Monday, September 19, 2005

My sister observed that a lot of our conversations on the show go like this conversation we had yesterday.

This can work with any proposition P, so feel free to fill in anything you like for P, such as "The Bible is absolutely true" or "Pascal's Wager is legitimate" or "Green skittles have magical powers over your libido."

Theist: "I assert that P!"Atheist: "Yes, but I don't believe P, because (off the cuff philosophical explanation of why P is invalid)."Theist: "Yes, I see what you're saying, but I have to remind you: P!"Atheist: "Okay, but I still don't agree with P. Let me explain my objection another way. (Another explanation from a different angle.)"Theist: "Hmmm, that's an interesting point. Now I have a good point for you: P!"Atheist: "Maybe you're not quite seeing my point. Let me give you an analogy. (There follows an extremely dumbed down and easily grasped analogy involving, for instance, the flying spaghetti monster.)"Theist: "Well that is fun to speculate on, but it still doesn't address the basic point, which is: P!"(Repeat 1-7 more times)Atheist: "Thanks for calling."

Once you've figured out how it works, here are some other cool things you can do with Google Earth:

Turn on the "Borders" checkbox to see state lines when you look at the image map. Also turn on "Roads".

In the "Layers" panel (lower left part of the interface), check the box that says "3D buildings" and then zoom in on New York or San Francisco.

Also in Layers, check the box that says "Keyhole Community BBS". When you zoom in anywhere, you can see little "info" marks that tell you interesting (or not so interesting) facts about the places you're looking at.

When you click on an info button, you can also click "more" to open a message board post giving more detail.

You can also use this message board to find more interesting locations. For instance, I wanted to find Machu Picchu, but typing "Machu Picchu" in the "Fly To" bar did not work. Instead, I search for Machu Picchu on the keyhole message board. I find a post that's useful, and it has a link on top that says "Open this placemark." Click there, and you jump to the right spot on the map.

The altitude is represented in 3D on the map. You can see this if you click on "Colorado River View" (of the grand canyon) or "Mount Saint Helens". Once you are close, you can tilt and rotate around your landmark using the interface on the bottom. I used this feature to look up the cliffs in La Jolla where I used to climb down to get to the beach.

If you are near the area where you want to find something, you don't have to retype the city and state. You can type an address or a business name. While looking at San Diego, I typed "Cheese Shop" to find a little sandwich spot where I used to eat lunch almost every workday.

Take a virtual trip across the US! Click "Directions" on the upper left. Type a starting destination and an ending destination. Then once the path is found, you can double-click on each waypoint. Your point of view will zoom to the location where you clicked, and you will be facing in the direction of the next leg of your journey. You can jump from spot to spot until you reach the end.